December 5, 1986, marks the eighty-fifth
anniversary of the birth of Walt Disney. ``Uncle Walt,'' as he was affectionately
known to his moviemaking colleagues in Hollywood, was just that to several
generations of American families: a warm, generous uncle who sat us on his knee
and told and retold us stories of comedy, imagination, and adventure. He was a
superb animator, a technical wizard, an astute manager and businessman, but
above all he was a man who never lost touch with his child's heart and sense of
wonder.

Walt
Disney's work and the countless characters he created or brought to the screen
-- Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and so many others -- are known the world over.
But if he is both legend and folk hero today, it wasn't always clear that he
was destined to achieve so much. Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago in 1901. His family
soon moved to Missouri, and he worked at a
variety of jobs. He returned to Chicago in 1917 and studied
photography and art, but he never graduated from high school. After serving in
World War I as a Red Cross ambulance driver, he joined an advertising firm in Kansas City as an apprentice
cartoonist.

The
real harbingers of his future success in this period, however, were the
cartoons he produced in a makeshift studio he built for himself above his
father's garage. In 1923 he went to Hollywood with $40 in savings
and, with his brother Roy, converted another small garage into a studio and set
to work. He put together two silent movies with a new cartoon character named
Mickey Mouse, but he was unable to get them released commercially. With
Steamboat Willie in 1928 -- a sound film with Disney's artwork and his own
voice for the diminutive hero's -- Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney had an instant
hit, the first of many.

Achievements
and awards followed in droves. Disney won 30 Academy Awards. He produced the
first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in 1937;
launched numerous technical innovations in sound and color; produced the first
television series in color in 1961; found new and effective ways of combining
live actors with cartoon characters in films like Song of the South and Mary Poppins; and everywhere, in classic movies from Fantasia to
The Jungle Book, he celebrated the power of delight through music.

The
standards of excellence Walt Disney upheld in animation extended to his later
productions, from nature films to movie versions of ancient fables, tales of
American heroes, and stories of youthful adventure. His love for technology and
the future, his desire to entertain and educate, and his sense of childlike
wonder led him to establish two popular amusement parks, Disneyland and Disney World, which
today draw visitors from around the globe.

Walt
Disney's true drawing table was the imagination, his themes were virtues like
courage and hope, and his audience was composed of young people -- in years or
at heart -- who, through the creations of this American genius, found new ways
to laugh, to cry, and to just plain appreciate the ``simple bare necessities of
life.''

The
Congress, by Public Law 99 - 391, has designated December
5, 1986,
as ``Walt Disney Recognition Day'' and authorized and requested the President
to issue a proclamation in observance of this event.

Now,
Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of
America, do hereby proclaim December
5, 1986,
as Walt Disney Recognition Day. I call upon all Americans to recognize this
very special day in the spirit in which Walt Disney entertained young and older
Americans.

In
Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 5th day of December, in the
year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of
America the two hundred and
eleventh.

Ronald
Reagan

[Filed
with the Office of the Federal Register, 2:08 p.m., December
5, 1986]